Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Canada Day is being celebrated here in Canada today. I take this opportunity to shed some light on the Medical masters from this country . For those people from Canada that have worked in the field of Health .Though not yet a citizen being an immigrant to this country my know- how was very little until I started surfing for this post .Indeed to my surprise I found a large list of medical doctors , Health Worker and politicians too . I was aware of some of the the work but never thought them to be from Canada .

Even today most Canadians when asked about any achievements in Medical field would speak about three or four major people . Honorable Thomas C. Douglas for Universal Health Reforms {thanks for the free medical care }, Banting and Best for Insulin and their work on Diabetes {imagine the world without insulin }. In the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame 74 laureates have been inducted up till now ,but due to lack of enough space in this post I have just tried to show some light on 5 to 6 laureates only sorry about that .

Also known as the "Father" of stress research because of his work and his discovery of biological stress response . Today all the signs and symptoms that we analysis and link with stress , lot has to be the work of this Great Canadian Doctor .Demonstrating that the body non specifically responds in virtually the same way to various stimuli or stressors was Dr Seyle's initial discovery . Researching further on the same lines he went and laid the ground work for steroids ACTCH ,GRH , somatostatin and other hypothalamic and hypophyseal releasing factors and hormones .He was also a prolific author on stress namely "The Stress of Life" and "Stress without Distress " . Both were international best sellers . Though born in Vienna Austria , Dr Selye moved to Montreal Canada which became his home for all the research work .He was inducted in the Canadian Hall of Medicine in the year 2006.

Though born in Halifax , Nova Scotia Dr Chalres B. Huggins worked in University of Chicago.Practising surgery and teaching urology , Dr Huggins discovered that malignant prostate tumors were upon the support of male hormones for their growth and proliferation .In the year 1966 he with Dr Peyton Ross both were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for there discovery that hormones could be used to control the spread of some cancers. This was also the first discovery that showed cancer can be controlled by chemicals .3] Dr Henry J.M .Barnett:

If your doctor had prescribed you baby aspirin to prevent you from having stroke , then it has to be dedicated to this University of Toronto Doctor namely Dr Henry J.M .Barnett . He directed the large multi-centered clinical trials in stroke which included the the first randomized trials of aspirin to prevent stroke .Until then in all cases of stroke one has to operate the carotid artery and the success rate was really poor .Thanks for this work that we are now safe in the hands of Aspirin .

If any one us has been advised to go for radiation for treating cancer , they should be thanking this two out of group of 4 Doctors from the University of Saskatchewan ,Canada for their works .Both Dr Harold Jones Dr .Sylvia O.Fedoruk were the first developers of the first nuclear scanning machines and the Cobalt 60 therapy unit which pioneered the curative treatment of cancer using high intensity radioactivity cobalt in humans .In further life Dr Harold Jones is said to be influential in the early developments of CT scanners and the definition of mammographic imagining .While Dr Sylvia O.Fedoruck in developing Dosimeter which allowed doctors to control the exact amount of radiation that each cancer patient received .

Dr Bernard Belleau has been known for his research of chemistry of several groups of drugs in combating infections and cancer at the University of Ottawa and McGill . During hiss creative work it lead to the discovery of 3TC {lamivudine} a medication which presently plays a major role in the therapy of AIDS . The same drug has been seen effective in working on Hepatitis B too .

Lot of things can said of many more scientist , doctors , surgeons from Canada for the work in their field of Health and providing health care . This has been the country known for its research in medical community for a long time and even today it has been in the fore front in working on different drugs on major diseases including AIDS , Cancer and Hepatitis B .

We salute all those and to this country on the occasion of Canada day!!!

Related links: Thanks for Canadian Medical Hall of Fame website to share all this material for me for this article .Please do take time to have a quick peek on that website too .